I have made a decision this morning to leave induction and start on the OWL. I started Atkins about a month and a half ago and decided to fore-go the induction and lost 7 pounds in two weeks. I kept my carbs around 30 a day and a few days they were closer to 40 and I was still loosing. Then my mom passed away and I just ate what was given to me with no attention paid to carbs. Two weeks after that, her best friend, who was like a second mother to me, passed away unexpectedly too. My husband came home on emergency leave for two weeks and that was great, but it was harder seeing him go the second time and it will be six months before I see him again, 12 total. My oldest son is being treated for mild autism and is also starting kindergarten. I also have a 3 year old at home with me. Needless to say I am so incredibly STRESSED right now. I started a week ago on strict induction minus a couple of endulge bars the first few days. My carbs have been at 20 or less and I haven't lost any weight at all. I bought some ketostix and 90% of the time they read negative. I have started obsessing over the darn things and may just throw them in the trash. I think my body is trying to tell me something. I think I have enough emotional stress right now that I don't need the physical stress of Ketosis. I think today I will up my carbs to 30 or so a day and eat more OWL type foods. Maybe some low carb bread occasionally and berries. I am also going to eat most veggies that I want not including potatoes of course. I just think I need to give my body a rest and not worry so much about weightloss. I even lost more weight at these levels of carbs than on induction levels before so maybe I will start to loose again. The problem is I feel like such a failure. I have never stuck to any diet longer than a day or so and this is the first one I could actually do and stay with. Even though I will still be technically on the Atkins diet, I feel like a failure at induction. I keep telling myself if I give it a week or so and want to go back to induction, I always can. I just cant seem to do it right now. Is it possible for stress to keep a person from going into ketosis? I really feel like that is my problem right now but I don't know if it is possible or just my excuse.